Constantine V of Byzantium

Constantine V of Byzantium (718-14 September 775) was the emperor of the Byzantine Empire from 741 to 742, succeeding Leo III of Byzantium and preceding Artavasdos of Byzantium and from 743 to 775, succeeding Artavasdos of Byzantium and preceding Leo IV of Byzantium.

Biography
Constantine was born in 718 in Constantinople to Emperor Leo III of Byzantium, and he was from the House of Isauros. In 741 he succeeded his father as emperor of the Byzantine Empire, but he had to deal with his brother-in-law Artavasdos, an Armenian general who seized the throne until 743. Constantine had him blinded and his allies blinded or executed, and during his reign he embraced iconoclasm. When he died in 775, his son Emperor Leo IV of Byzantium would allow monks to return to monasteries after decades of being persecuted by Constantine.